Water Bill Passes
The House passed a $20 billion water projects bill that is filled with Army Corps of Engineers environmental projects and drinking water and wastewater treatment plants included by Senate and House negotiators. President Bush has promised to veto the bill. The bill was seven years in the making and finally passed the House on a 381-40 vote.
This year's bill includes some $3.5 billion for Katrina-damaged Louisiana, plus more than $2 billion for projects in California and $2 billion for Florida, mostly for restoring the Everglades. Another $1.95 billion is included for seven new locks on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers and $1.7 billion for repairing the region's ecology.
The bill authorizes projects by the Army Corps to improve navigation, reduce flood and storm damage threats and restore environmental damage. Detractors view the bill as too expensive, a $14 billion dollar plan was the old basis for the various projects.
Senate Environment Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and the committee's senior Republican, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, each vowed to fight Bush by gaining enough votes to override a veto.
Controversy over the Army Corps projects has made it difficult to pass the Water Resources Development Act, which hasn't been renewed since 2000. When Congress first passed the law in 1986, lawmakers envisioned its renewal every two years.
August 2, 2007 6:53 AM | Category: Politics